Thursday, February 16, 2017

Cannabis Exerts Powerful Neuroprotective Effects And May Soon Be Used In Stroke and Cardiac Emergencies

Cannabidiol (CBD) is one of over 100 active cannabinoids in cannabis.
It accounts for 40 percent of the plant's extract and widely considered
to be one of it's most powerful constituents that heals cells.
Emergency teams in cardiac and stroke units may one day use CBD's
neuroprotective effects to prevent the onset of debilitating symptoms
developing from stroke and cardiac arrest.

The reason cannabis is so effective medicinally is directly related
to its ability to interact with receptors in the body which inhibit
inflammation and prevent disease. Cannabis does this so well, that few drugs can compete with its level of potency which come essentially with no side effects.

The new study from China documents"for the first time"
how CBD can exert a potentially neuroprotective effect against brain
ischemia/reperfusion injury.

Brain ischemia is a common clinical condition, and is
involved in many serious diseases, including stroke, cardiac arrest, and
respiratory arrest.

The treatment for this condition usually involves the
restoration of blood flow as quickly as possible. However, this can
cause secondary injury to the ischemic area, referred to as
ischemia/reperfusion injury.

"The restoration of the blood circulation causes
inflammation and oxidative-stress-induced damage in the area affected by
the absence of oxygen and nutrients during the period of cerebral
ischemia," wrote researchers from Fudan University in Shanghai.

"CBD treatments
will most certainly exist in emergency rooms for stroke
and cardiac patients in the future," said cardiac specialist Dr. Sean
McCormick. "Not only will CBD extracts prevent inflammatory damage but
they may also heal existing damage."

"Brain ischemia with reperfusion also results in
impaired mitochondrial oxidative metabolism and a depletion of the
reducing energy of neurons, which contribute to programmed cell death,"
they added.

The researchers said it had recently been demonstrated
in vivo and in vitro that CBD has a variety of therapeutic properties,
exerting antidepressant, anxiolytic, anti-inflammatory,
immunomodulatory, and neuroprotective effects.

"Increasing evidence indicates that CBD is a molecule
with potentially neuroprotective properties that can be used to treat
neurodegenerative disorders," they added.

In this study, the mechanisms underlying the potential
neuroprotective effects of CBD, a nonpsychotropic compound derived from
Cannabis sativa, were assessed.

They were studied in vitro using an
oxygen-glucose-deprivation/reperfusion (OGD/R) model in a mouse
hippocampal neuronal cell line.

The study found that the potent neuroprotective
effects of CBD protected against oxygen-glucose-deprivation/reperfusion
(OGDR) injury induced cytotoxicity, energy crisis, and disturbance of
the cellular metabolism.

Precise Mechanism

The researchers stated it did so by alleviating
oxidative stress; enhancing mitochondrial bioenergetics and activating
the pentose-phosphate pathway, thereby strengthening the antioxidant
defences and preserving the energy homeostasis of neurons

"We propose, for the first time, that CBD stimulates
glucose metabolism through the pentose-phosphate pathway to maintain the
redox balance and energy conservation during neuronal
ischemia/reperfusion injury."

They concluded their results suggested that CBD exerts
a potent neuroprotective effect against ischemia/reperfusion, and added
more in-depth studies are required to investigate the precise mechanism
underlying the success of CBD treatment.